D.T.A.

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"D.T.A."
Publisher	IDW Publishing, Ted Adams
First published	November 16, 2016
Cover date	October 2016
Written by	Aubrey Sitterson
Line-art by	Giannis Milonogiannis
Colors by	Lovern Kindzierski
Letters by	Chris Mowry
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era

Scarlett leads a team to extract a mysterious asset from the Bikini Atoll EDC facility.

Synopsis

With the Earth Defense Command base on Bikini Atoll silent for two days, Scarlett has assembled a small, trusted team to investigate and extract "valuable assets", fearing the worst following the revelation that Joe Colton had been replaced by an alien infiltrator. The group approaches the island in Shipwreck's submarine, and once in range, Scarlett and the rest of her team – Roadblock, Rock 'n Roll, Quick Kick, and Wild Bill—are torpedoed to the surface inside pockets of air.

As they come ashore, the team splits up: Scarlett and Roadblock will move in on the base's main entrance, whilst the others stand ready to act in an emergency. On the approach, Scarlett tries one last time to raise the EDC facility on the radio, when suddenly the base opens fire, pinning the two Joes down behind a fallen tree. The second team, meanwhile, faces its own problems when Wild Bill draws a knife and advances on Rock! Quick Kick intervenes in time to save his comrade, disarming the apparent traitor, but Bill deploys writhing spikes from his wrists and soon overpowers the martial artist. Rock 'n Roll trains his gun on the infiltrator, but the face it wears makes him hesitate long enough to receive a powerful energy blast to the chest, fired from the false Bill's mouth.

Quick Kick reengages, but is no match for the alien in his weakened state, and soon finds himself being being choked by the monster's wrist-tendrils. He is saved in the nick of time by Rock 'n Roll, who bludgeons the false Bill in the head with his machine gun before violently beating it to death. In its throes, the creature reverts to its natural form, and Rock reports the situation to Scarlett, who is still pinned down.

Although shaken, the team leader orders that the mission proceed as planned, and she and Roadblock leap from cover, the machine-gunner providing cover fire so that Scarlett can approach the building and begin planting explosive charges. Safe in the knowledge that all their enemies are in alien infiltrators, Roadblock lets loose and mows them down as they emerge from the base. The charges laid, Scarlett retreats to her teammate's position, slaying an alien with just her knife on the way. Back in cover, she loads a flaming bolt into her crossbow and takes aim, detonating the charges in an explosion that wracks the entire base.

This, however, is merely a distraction, allowing Rock 'n Roll, carrying the unconscious Quick Kick on his back, to enter the base. Unfortunately, their arrival does not go unnoticed, and he is forced to shoot through a veritable army of aliens. As the smoke clears, Quick Kick awakens, and insists that Rock leave him and go ahead to secure the objective. Remarking that whoever they're there for better be worth it, the machine-gunner proceeds onward, kicking through a door.

On the other side, he finds fellow Joe Grand Slam, nervous and pointing a gun. Slam accuses Rock 'n Roll of being one of the aliens, and refuses to let him pass, insisting that the asset he guards is too valuable. Rock desperately attempts to convince the Joe of his identity, all the while wondering if Slam is himself one of the "Dire Wraiths", but the other man refuses to trust him. When Grand Slam threatens to kill him, Rock 'n Roll makes his decision and fires. The Joe collapses to the floor... and does not change back into an alien.

The horror of what he has just done begins to grip Rock 'n Roll, but his panicked rambling is interrupted by a voice across the room. Turning to see the owner of the voice, Rock's regret becomes anger as he realizes who Grand Slam got shot for:

Skywarp, former Decepticon and, so he claims, valuable asset!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Your time has passed, human. Your world is ours!"
"See, that's the thing. This world? It's under G.I. Joe's protection."

—A Dire Wraith is told what's what by Scarlett

"I'm a valuable asset. Trust me."

—Skywarp

Notes

Continuity notes

• This story falls between Revolution #3 and #4. It was in the former that the Joes discovered their ranks had been infiltrated by the Dire Wraiths, and in the latter, Scarlett and Roadblock are shown returning to Governor's Island after the events of this issue.
• For the first time in IDW continuity, Shipwreck is accompanied by Polly, his classic parrot companion. The closest he's gotten in the past was when he used a personal recon drone nicknamed "Polly" in 2013's G.I. Joe vol. 3.
• Wild Bill has made surprisingly few appearances in IDW G.I. Joe continuity, but did recently show up in The Transformers vol. 2 #57; whether he was already an impostor at that point is unknown.
• Grand Slam has appeared in only one IDW issue prior to this one: 2009's G.I. Joe: Origins #7, in which he was.... uh, shot in the head rather graphically. Ironically enough, his "corpse" was also carried off by Rock 'n Roll. The letters page for issue #3 states that he actually survived that, thanks to the Joe's advanced medical facilities, which is how he shows up here.
• Skywarp defected to the EDC in The Transformers vol. 2 #54, and was last seen hanging out at their base in issue #56.

Real-life references

• Rock 'n Roll describes his team as the "JV squad", a term for a secondary team in U.S. high school and college sports.

Errors

• Milonogiannis draws all the Joes with the new designs created for the upcoming, ongoing G.I. Joe series, which aren't the outfits they're wearing in the Revolution issues set immediately before and after this story. In particular, Roadblock has a noticeably different beard.

Other notes

• Originally solicited for release in October, in chronologically-correct position between Revolution #3 and #4, delays pushed it into mid-November, after Revolution #4 had already come out.
• The issue's title, "D.T.A.", is presumably an abbreviation of "Don't Trust Anyone".

Covers (4)

• Regular cover: Soundwave menaces the G.I. Joes, by Aaron Conley and Michael Garland.
• Sub cover A: Scarlett, Roadblock, and Rock 'n Roll with Optimus Prime and Soundwave, by Giannis Milonogiannis.
• Sub cover B: Blank cover for sketches.
• Cover RI: The Joes, by Ken Christiansen.